Alderson says he has not spoken with Wilpon since the article came out, but something in the $120 million range for his 2012 budget sounded reasonable.

“There was no quote from Fred about $100 million,” he said. “From my standpoint, that’s not a number we discussed and I would expect our payroll to be somewhere above that number and somewhere below where we are now.”

The Mets current payroll is around $140 million, with several hefty contracts set to come off the books at season’s end, including those belonging to Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes.

“There’s a potential minority investor that may come on board. It may depend on how we end up this season,” he said.

“Any time you’re entertaining the idea of a minority investor, budgets need to be prepared, projections, forecasts and so forth. A fair amount of work, a fair amount of discussion has gone into the topic of payroll.”

He was vague about timetables for making decisions on specific numbers or players, but Alderson understands the challenge that lies ahead of him.

“The financial situations are somewhat more challenging than I had originally anticipated. I didn’t expect this to be an easy task,” he said. “None of these financial issues have affected any of the decisions we’ve made. Will that affect occur down the road? We’ll see.”

The Sports Illustrated article came out a day after The New Yorker published an article in which Wilpon, sounding a lot like the team’s frustrated fan base, disparaged the Mets’ play, called the franchise “snakebitten,” and took aim at some of the team’s high-profile players.

He said Reyes won’t get a contract similar to the $142 million, seven-year deal that the Boston Red Sox gave Carl Crawford last winter.

Wilpon said Beltran is “65 to 70 percent of what he was,” and called David Wright, a five-time All-Star third baseman, “A really good kid. A very good player. Not a superstar.”

Wilpon is facing a multimillion dollar lawsuit filed by a court trustee seeking to recover money for victims of the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. The Mets received a loan from Major League Baseball in November to help cover expenses, and Wilpon and his son, Jeff, are looking into selling part of the team.

Mets fans: Would you be happy with a $120 million payroll? Sound off below…

(TM and Copyright 2011 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)